Out from Under the Law, Part 1

He hinted at all that he was
responding to some potential mischaracterization of his own
words in 5.01. There, he said, the law came
in so that the transgression would increase, but where it
did increase, racism and all the more. And remember that,
as we said and studied at the beginning of Chapter 6, Paul
moved immediately to deal with those mischaracterizations, those
potential mischaracterizations of his own words. That if sin
increased, why not sin it up so that grace would flourish?
And we dealt with that, as you recall. You also might remember
that as Paul began to wrap up his defense there in chapter
6, in verse 14 he makes another statement. to create another
firestorm. In that verse he says, sin shall
not be mastered over you, for you are not under law but under
grace. Well that, to the Jews that might
have been listening in, that was a tremendously provocative
statement. And Paul immediately begins to
deal with that statement. And he does all of that in verses
15-23. In this particular section, we
saw that Paul really only answered half of that question that he
raised in verse 14. He only dealt with half the problem.
Here, in verse 7, Paul is still, as we found, he is still focused
on justification by faith. He is still in the midst of elaborating
the great doctrine of sanctification, our progressive growth in righteousness. fractional racism in the here
and now. As I said, Paul had only answered
half the questions so far that he raised in verse 14, and now
what he begins to do is deal with the other half of that question.
Here in chapter 7 is where he begins to respond to that portion
of what he said in verse 14. You are not under law but under
grace. This is where he begins to deal with it in chapter 7. And he does so by reminding them
that they had been liberated, freed from the law by death. And that came as quite a surprise
to them. It came as, in a sense, a reminder by fault, but a surprising
reminder nonetheless. We have to think back through,
when did we die? Well, we died with Christ. In
chapter 7, Paul goes on to expound this particular truth. And essentially
what Paul does is focus in on the Christian’s relationship
to the law. That’s what’s in view. He introduces
it in verse 14 of chapter 6. He took a segue in verses 15
through 23, and now he’s back dealing with that great subject. And we looked at it. We looked
at verse 1, where Paul even uses language that suggests this is
common knowledge. Do you not know, brethren? He
calls them to remember the basics of the gospel. Do you not know? Paul’s not being rude. Paul’s
not being harsh towards them. He is merely using this rhetorical
device to call them to recollect the truths of the gospel and
that this is wonderful. Now, he does use the word brethren.
He doesn’t. Paul is addressing the Jews,
but he knows the Gentiles are listening in. He’s addressing
his brethren, the Jews, and I say that because they are those who
know the law. They knew it backwards and forwards. And Paul, in order to be fair
to this text, it’s only reasonable to suggest that Paul is addressing
the Jews, the Jewish believers, who still have the Old Testament
and still could import much of that. but he knows the Gentiles are
listening in. So he addresses the Christians,
Jewish and Gentile, and he knew that the Gentiles were listening
in to this conversation, and that was okay. That, as we suggested
last week, was even by design. God wanted to instruct the Gentiles
as well, as well as protecting the Church from would be Judaism. Now, the Book of Romans is not
a treatise on or against Judaism, per se. But Paul is always aware
of that. That is the one great issue that
dogged his desk everywhere he went. So Paul is not going to
shy away from this recurring issue. In fact, he heads it off
very quickly here in this passage. Paul says, Do you not know, brethren,
I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law has jurisdiction
over a person as long as he lives. That’s a profound statement.
But it’s a statement, if you will, that limits the scope of
the law. He says that the law has jurisdiction. There’s no doubt about it. The law has jurisdiction over
every person who was ever born. The law has absolute dominion
over us, and the law brings every person that’s ever born into
condemnation because no one can live up to the law. The law has
jurisdiction over every person ever born. But the crucial point that Paul
made is that the law has jurisdiction
over a person only as long as he lives. In other words, when
he dies, the law’s jurisdiction, the dominion of the law, the
kind of nation that it brings, is over. It’s finished. And in
verses 2 and 3, he uses a very simple illustration to point
that out. Look at verses 2 and 3. The married woman is now my
lawful husband and uses this illustration of the husband and
wife relationship, the marriage, that was guided and directed
by the law of God. People didn’t just create or
invent this institution. This is God’s institution. He
has a right to speak to how it works. And he says that a woman
who marries a man is bound to it as long as he lives. The married woman is bound by law,
God’s law, to her husband while he lives. And that too is a huge
statement, and that is given to illustrate the point that
Paul has already made. That the law has jurisdiction
over a person only as long as they live. When a husband dies,
the wife is free from that law. When her husband dies, she is
released, at the end of verse 2 there, she is released from
the law concerning her husband, So then, if, while her husband
is living, she is joined to another man, she should be called an
adulteress. And we see no few examples of
that, even in our current age. We think of John Chapter 4, when
Jesus addressed the woman at the well. The same situation
was spread throughout. She had many husbands. She was an adulteress. She was
living contrary to God’s law. That’s what that point is making.
and then at the end of that same passage, but if her husband dies,
she is free from the law. The law’s dominion over her is
no longer valid. She is free from the law so that
she is not an adulteress. She is free to remarry so that
even if she is going to another man, she is not considered an
adulteress, not in a legal sense, not according to the law. Now,
That’s what we got with the last fourth bit. We’re on fresh ground
from this point forward. And we come, in a sense, to another
profound passage. And each time I come to one of
these passages, and the first time you read it, and I’m sure
to a degree, the first time you read Romans 7 and 4, it would
almost come to mind, yeah, we get it, to a degree. As one says,
we come to one of Paul’s great and monumental verses, which
gives us one of those perfect definitions of what it means
to be a Christian. We have to talk. We have to savor
this verse. We have to treat it very carefully
as the Word of God, which it is. Here, he goes on to say,
we have the Gospel in a nutshell. In a few words, the whole essence
of the Christian faith and position is summed up before us. Did you
realize that when you read Romans 7-4? In this verse, we come to
the application of what the Apostle has been saying in the first
three verses. One of those verses, verse 4,
verse 4 is one of those verses in which the Apostle delights
to give a complete summary of the whole of the Christian life.
Did you realize that when you read through Romans 7-4? And
I have to admit, I didn’t. The first time I read through
this, This was, essentially, a transitional passage on the
way somewhere else. We have to save it all. And we’ll
do that this morning. And so, essentially, in order
to show believers in Rome, both Jewish and Gentile, as I pointed
out, the limit of the law. So I wanted them to know about
the law, but I also wanted them to know the limit of the law.
that in a very real sense, the law no longer has jurisdiction
over them because they have died. Remember? In order to drive home
this point, he uses this simple illustration about marriage.
And in the nature of marriage, duty is marriage up to the point
of death. And isn’t when death should come
the wife or the husband? See, Paul just points to one,
but it works for both. If the wife dies, the husband
also is free to remarry. The wife or the husband would
be released from that marriage on the death of the spouse. It’s
a simple illustration. It’s a simple illustration to
a simple truth. The law has its limits, and it’s
limited to the life of the individual. It can’t touch a dead man, as
we saw last week. Now, it is absolutely crucial. The illustration Paul uses ends
at verse 3. That’s the end of the illustration.
And it’s important for us to acknowledge that. It’s crucial.
Many people who come to this passage stumble because they
want to extend the illustration well beyond its intended borders,
well into verse 4. And in order to do that, they
have to take some liberty from Scripture. And it’s totally immoral. Totally unnecessary. Let Paul, under the influence
of the Holy Spirit, speak. Look at the passage, look at
verse 4. you also were made to die for
the law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another,
to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit
for God.” Now, Paul is going to make a play on words, using
the same words that he used in verse 3 two times. He used the
words joined together or joined to another twice in verse 3 to
refer to a woman in relationship to a man. He used joined to another
in a proper sense and joined to another in an improper sense. But as I said, the illustration
ends at verse 3. Verse 4 begins the application
of this principle. Paul isn’t speaking about marriage
anymore. In verse 4, he’s simply making
a play on words that just as a woman could be legitimately
joined to another man, so we as believers can legitimately
be joined to another, in union with another, namely, our Lord
Jesus. But heaven forbid, it’s not marriage. We’re not individually married
to Jesus. There are some religions that
practice this habit of wearing a ring, suggesting that those
who are in the ministry are married to the Lord, or married to the
Church. That’s not at all what it’s all
about. Here’s how it unfolds. I want
you to be patient with me this morning, as you almost always
are. Here’s how it unfolds. Look at
verse 4 again. Therefore, my brethren, you were made to die
for the law. Therefore, look at that word. That one word. Therefore, offers us a great
clue to the direction that Paul is taking. He’s drawing a conclusion
from the illustration in verses 2 and 3. He’s not perpetuating
the illustration. He’s making a quick transition.
Essentially answering the question, how does the truth of verses
1 through 3, the principle and the illustration shake out in
real life. What does it mean, practically
speaking, to God as a believer? He says, you also may deny the
law. Please note, as I said, if you
perpetuate the illustration, if you continue to bring forward
and try and apply who fits who in this illustration. It’s going to drive you crazy
and it’s going to break down very, very quickly. Look at this. It doesn’t say
here that the law represents the husband. It doesn’t say that the law represents
the husband in foreseeing he had to early divide. It doesn’t
say that the law divides. It doesn’t say it because it
isn’t true. Paul is very careful with his words. The last thing
Paul would say is that the law now is dead. Paul is careful. Paul is desiring to be entirely
biblical, and it is absolutely unbiblical to suggest that the
law is no longer living and active. Paul simply indicates that a
death has occurred. There is an end to the jurisdiction
of the law, but the law didn’t die, we did. As one said in the
case of Christians and their relationship to the law of condemnation,
also a death has occurred, not as one might view in the foregoing
illustration to be inclined to expect the death of the law,
or the law’s condemnation, but the death of the Christians themselves.
That’s Paul’s whole point from Romans 6 forward. By way of reminder,
do we die? Not the law. And note also the
form of this verse. Captured in our translations,
hopefully. It’s in the Aorist tense for
our purposes, essentially past tense. It’s something that is
already taking place. And furthermore, the verb is
in what we would say the passive voice, which indicates that it’s
something that happens to us, not something that we did. We
die, or literally, we were made to die, killed basically. We didn’t kill ourselves, we
were killed off. We were made to die. One said
the verb is passive indicating that believers do not die naturally
or put themselves to death, but they have been made to die by
the divine act of God in response to Satan himself. We die with
Christ because of our faith in him. Even the particular verb
that Paul uses here is meaningful, very meaningful. He could have
used any number of verbs to describe his actions, but he picked what
would have been to directly tie this whole thing back to the
death of Christ, which was a violent act that was done to him. Not merely in a passing way.
Christ didn’t merely just die, certainly not at old age. It
was a murder. He was put to death. And in Christ,
so were we. One said Paul uses a different
word here to describe death, because the thought of Christ
being put to death on a cross is in his mind, and he wants
to suggest to his readers the fact that this blighted death
in the Christian’s past is God’s doing. This is part of God’s
sovereign plan in our lives. So we were put to death with
Christ. Therefore, my brethren, Paul
says, you were made. by God, to die to the law. First of all, matter of fact, to prove the nature of this verb,
the meaning of this verb, this is the likeness of the crucifixion. Matthew 26-79, the chief priest,
the whole council, had tried to obtain Paul’s testimony against
Jesus. Why? So that they might put him to
death. As he was 271, when he came,
all the chief priests, the elders, and people conferred together
against Jesus to put him to death. They said, well, that’s only
part of the truth, and that’s just the Gospels, and really only
one Gospel. So it occurs also in Mark. Peter carried this verse
forward into his epistle. Christ also died for sins, once
for all, the just for the unchaste. that he might bring it to God,
having been put to death. It was a murder. It was a murder
that God ordained, but it was a murder nonetheless. And we
were put to death with Christ. So this verse is a direct tie
back to the nature of the believer’s death in Christ. The violent
act that was done to us, we were killed. We were killed. A very specific manner. I don’t think Paul made a point
in verse 4. The death, a violent death, took
place. Christ died. Better, Christ was
put to death. We died. Better, we were put
to death with him. It’s really unnecessary to go
anywhere beyond that with regards to this illustration. But then he didn’t. And they still do. That’s one
of them. And here’s where we begin to
enforce the idea of the verse 2 and 3 and the verse 4, and
it becomes money. Excuse me a minute. As the woman is freed from the
law by the death of her husband, so you are freed from the law
by the death of the Christ. The law is our first husband,
but the law being dead, we are freed from the obligation of
obedience to it and are at liberty to accept the gospel. Why? And there’s a problem with this
quote. It’s an attempt to perpetuate the illustration to such an extent
that by talking we can, to bring forward the illustration into
verse four, to attempt to tie every character in the illustration
to an actual person, and to try to make them correspond to the
earlier illustrations. Where else does somebody get
the idea that we were once married to the law? Let me say that. And it’s not necessary. In fact,
it’s just downright strange. Now the Church, as I said earlier,
is in Scripture considered to be the bride of Christ. I get
that. Many Old Testament illustrations point to the same or similar
relationship with God. But in no sense can the individual
believer be said to be married either to the law or to Jesus. Here’s how the mischaracterization
occurs, listen. in the illustration must correspond
to the law in the application. The woman in the illustration
must correspond to the believer in the application. We are married
to the law as the woman is to the husband, and we cannot be
released from the law until death occurs. It’s a parallel we’re
carrying through. We should expect the Apostles
to say that the law has dominated and that through the death of
the law we are released as a woman in this illustration. The reality
is we don’t have to do that. We don’t have to play
games with Scripture. We don’t have to read this allegorically. We don’t have to muddy up the
illustrations. We can take all the words for
what they are. an application of what he’s already
said. You don’t have to make the woman
in verses 2 and 3 correspond to anything outside of that illustration. And likewise, the man of that
same illustration, we don’t have to bring him forward. If anything
other than who he is in verses 2 and 3, the husband or the wife. The only thing we really need
to acknowledge is the fact that it yet occurred. Just like in
verses 2 and 3, the illustration is that a death occurred. And
so also in verse 4, a death occurred. As one said, the apostle is concerned
to clarify a great principle. His illustration does that to
perfection, the illustration of verses 2 and 3. All he is
concerned to show is that death alone can terminate an old relationship. As far as the law is concerned,
it does not matter which partner dies. He could not say that the
law had died because the law had not died. And so, we’ve read a lot of this
first quarter. We need to consider it as an
application of it, a continuation of the illustration. The point that we are not expected
to find in verse 4 is something that exactly corresponds to the
death of the husband in the illustration in verses 2 and 3. The main point
of the illustration is that only by the death of her husband is
the woman released from the law, her husband. And the main point
of the application in verse 4 is how we may be released from the
law. There cannot be relief by a method
that literally follows the pattern of the illustration drawn from
Vera Marie. You cannot make that point from
that illustration. Nevertheless, there is a death
which releases the bond just as decisively as the death of
the husband in the other page. You know what? That’s a great
point. That’s why it’s crucial to know where the illustration
begins. from where the illustration ends.
Otherwise, to be consistent with the illustration, you have to
say that the law, the husband, died. And that’s just not true. The husband in the illustration
of verses 2 and 3 died. The law in the application of
verse 4 did not. One said to speak of the death
of the law would have introduced an erroneous concept. I wouldn’t
even go on to call it a heretical concept. The law did not die. The law did not die. So what is Paul saying? And I
can see you sitting on the edge of your seats. Oh, enough. And
it really is an amazing point. And I ask for your patience.
Have you granted it? Here we go. It’s too bad that so many
commentators have muddied the waters as muddles are thinking
when it’s essentially the gospel that Paul What Paul is revealing to us
is the new manner in which the grace of the gospel delivers
us out from under the dominion and the condemnation of the law.
It’s the gospel. As one says, law confirms and
seals our bondage to sin. As long as the law governs us,
there is no possibility of release from the bondage to sin. The
only alternative is discharge from the law. This occurs in
our union with Christ in a death, because all the virtue of Christ’s
death, in meeting the claims of the law, becomes ours. And
we are free from the bond service and the power of sin with the
law that’s inside of us. It’s the gospel. We’ve realized
here in these verses how we are released from the law. is in the fact that we die with
Christ. And just as the death of the
husband frees the woman from the marriage, Paul says, you
were made to die to the law. Some people panic when they read
that. Made to die to the law, which means from here forward
in the Christian life, the law has no place. I said that last
week, but it’s not the beginning. That’s the great error that so
many people slip into. We will never be saved by the
law, but it remains the standard to which we aim. We still uphold
the standard limits. We still yearn to uphold those,
and we fail every day. That’s why I said last week,
what a perfect package to come to the Lord’s table on January
1, 2012. Perfect. We fail every day. That’s why
I always cringe at people that claim to say that they hold to
the law. Just like the lawyer who came
to Jesus and said, all this I have done for my years. So rude. Not
one of us has lived according to the law even a single day.
Nor could we. Even with the grace of God. The
law remains standard. It remains alive and remains
there to call us to repentance, to call us to a standard, but
we are no longer under his condemnation. It cannot chase us away from
the Lord’s table. It cannot chase us away from
the presence of God. It cannot do us ill to forge
our salvation. It cannot. We are no longer under
his jurisdiction. Lord John says it this way. The
law is still alive. Because of the gap which is taking
place, we are no longer bound to the law, no longer under the
dominion of the law, we are no longer under it as a covenant
of works, we are no longer in a position of trying to save
ourselves, to justify ourselves, to sanctify ourselves, and to
make ourselves think and stand in the presence of God by keeping
the law. That was our position. That is
still the position common to the whole of mankind. That if
you were in Christ, if you have placed your faith in Christ,
you die for sin, and the law no longer has dominion over you.
The law has no condemnation to issue forth to you. You press
on. You call out to God for grace.
It’s a little better tomorrow. To deal with those sins and errors
that you live in this day. And in this, if you would, Paul says, therefore, my brethren,
you were made to die for the law through the body of Christ. So we have the application of
love in him so far. The illustration of verses 2
and 3 is over. Verse 4 is the application. And
Paul says that we were made to die by the law. How? How did
this happen? And the question and the answer
harkens back, doesn’t it, all the way to Romans 6. Remember
it? Let’s go back to Romans 6. And look at verse 1. What shall
we say then? Are we to continue in sin, that
grace might increase? May it never be. How shall we
who died to sin still live in it? And you say, when? Remember,
when did we die to sin? Do you not know that all of us
who have been baptized and slain into Christ have been baptized
immersed into death? Therefore, we have been very
willing to be baptized into death. so that as Christ was raised
from the dead to the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in the midst of life.” He says exactly the same thing here in
verse 7. Our death is in Christ. He died
with us. We have placed our faith with
Him. We died with Christ. The crucifixion of Christ’s body
is in Jesus. It’s the body of Christ here
that refers to the crucifixion of our Lord. And we can’t possibly
mess up this simple point, can we? And I see you pray, because
they do. People mess even this simple
point up. This is the gospel. And Paul
is saying here that we died in Christ. This is the very body
of Christ in the place of the cross on our behalf, how wrong,
how erroneous it would be then that someone would construe this
phrase to point to the body of Christ as signifying the Church. And that they do. The Church
is referred to as the body of Christ, it’s not here. It’s an
appropriate image in its place We speak of the Church as the
body of Christ, but not here. What Paul is talking about here
is Christ’s very body being sacrificed on the cross at four o’clock,
and we give the answer. A number of faithful
men, commentators, said, no reference to the mystical body, the body
of Christ as the Church. No reference to the mystical
body of the Church is to be sought here. The word body is used instead
of death to remind readers that the Lord took our nature upon
him expressly in view of his death. Still another, another
address that’s even more poignant than what he said. The assumption
of the idea that the Church is the body of Christ is also present
here is totally unworthy. You’re made dead to the law of
condemnation through the body of Christ. It’s a matter of God’s
merciful decision. They died in His death, and He
died for them. This is the testimony of Scripture,
people. He presents, by this we have
all been sanctified through the offering of His body, the body
of Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1.22. He has now reconciled you in
his fleshly body. 1 Peter 2.24. He himself bore
our sins in his body on the cross. This is his body. Paul presses on with his declaration
of the gospel, explaining here the reason for our death in Christ. Why did we have to die? Look at verse 4 again. Therefore,
my brethren, you were made to die to the law through the body
of Christ, through His death on the cross, that ye might be
joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead. The
thought is that as we were placed into Christ, remember the image
of baptism, immersed into Christ, we ended up sharing in the effects
of His death. And if death is here, and then
ultimately, remember the whole passage was about the resurrection
of Christ. That’s why we die. He said, we
were made to die for the body of Christ, so that we would be
joined to another. And therein is that language.
The Qur’an doesn’t let it make us uncomfortable, because in
verses 2 to 3, it’s the husband and the wife relationship between
you, that one is joined to another. All Paul is doing here is using
the simple illustration of union. He’s not suggesting for a minute
that we get married to Christ when we get divorced or when
the law dies. The very purpose for which we died
in Christ is to be set free from the condemnation of the law in
order that from here forward we would belong exclusively to
Christ We love Christ. We long to serve Christ. We long
to walk with Him and know Him and become more and more like
Him every day. That’s the union that Paul is
talking about. As one pastor said, through the
body of Christ, we suffer the penalty of death on our behalf. Believers are freed from their
relationship to the law just as a widow. Believers are free
to be joined to Jesus Christ. And I want you to just glance
at one last thing before we close for the morning. Paul says, Therefore,
brethren, you are made die to the law through the body of Christ,
that ye might be joined to another. To who specifically? To him who
was raised from the dead. You know the passage I never
complained of. And yet, it’s amazing, somebody made a comment
last Thursday, how amazing it is that our readings so often
echo one another, echo what I’m even preaching. Ephesians 1 is
no different. Ephesians 1 15, what Paul is
talking about, is what I call, when I preach that, maximum power.
Not our version of maximum power, the fastest car on the block.
God’s version of maximum power, that in essence, to raise Christ
from the dead, took God’s maximum power. It was creative power.
It was bringing Christ from death to life. It’s a powerful message. Paul never skips across the doctrine
of the resurrection lightly, and he doesn’t do so here. He
wants us to remind us that it was God who raised him from the
dead. It is the risen Savior that is
in you. It is the very essence of the
gospel. It’s our resurrected Christ. One Puritan had it this way when
he said the Apostle was referring to the literal, physical resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave. He is asserting that
it was essential to our salvation that, in addition to the death
of the Lord Jesus, that He should also have risen from among the
dead and out of the grave, that He should have appeared among
men and ascended into heaven, that He should be at this moment
in God’s presence. It is the final proof that what
he did in his life and death is sufficient. He answered by
the last demand of the law. He has conquered the last enemy,
which is death. This whole concludes verse 4,
verse 4 of the book, with another element, essentially, of the
gospel. It is about changed lives. It
is about lives that, from this point forward, live no longer
to their own glory, but for God’s, and for God’s love. And they
draw upon the grace of God, and they seek to live, and they seek
to honor Him in all that they do, not out of duty, not because
they are constrained by some law, but because they love the
Savior, who gave His life. Therefore, my brethren, if you
were made to die under the law through the body of Christ, that
you might be joined to another, to him who was raised from the
dead, that we might pray to the God. The next thing we’ll say, we’ll
take it up there, what is the purpose? What if God is designing
this whole transaction? practical way, his Christ-hood,
his holiness of life, his sanctification, of this entire section, is installed. So, we’re here. So, first of all, please, we
humble ourselves in your people, and we thank you and praise you
for this.